Pre-Dent Titans, have you chosen a dental school yet? Are you prepared to apply for dental school, and most importantly, have you done your homework?! Detroit Mercy had the opportunity to have Creighton University School of Dentistry’s Information Session on February 18, 2021! Dr. Neil Norton shared a plethora of information not only for students who are considering Creighton but for all students who are applying to Dental Schools!
He covered three important elements in his presentation:
- The admissions process
- Preparing for admissions
- Comparison of dental schools.
What are some other things you should consider when looking at dental school? The most important thing for you to look at is fit…will you fit there?-Dr. Norton
If you were unable to attend the info session, we will cover some highlights but do yourself a huge favor and watch the full recording! The information and advice provided is appropriate for all Pre-Dentistry students!
Admissions Process
“The admissions process is very difficult to navigate, especially for the first time because it is very different from many of the other health professions…Its not like medicine, its not like physical therapy or occupational therapy, or nursing…its very systematic and very regiment.”
Dr. Norton goes over 7 key points that Creighton School of Dentistry look for as part of the process as well as a timeline.
- Evidence of predisposition to provide dental health care in undeserved areas.
- Evidence of participation in worthwhile community activities.
- Recommendations/Letters of reference
- Quality of pre-professional education program
- Residence in states with educational compacts
- Evidence of good moral character, motivation, and emotional and intellectual maturity.
- Other personal background information the applicant chooses to submit
“Please keep in mind when you are accepted into dental school, one of the things you have to do is take a background check and when you take a background its not uncommon for things to pop up and what you want to make sure you do is put anything you know is probably going to pop up on the background check, on your application.”
“When you try to hide something and you get accepted and then things come up on the background check that you did not submit or let them know, a lot of institutions will revoke your admissions.”
Timeline
- May / June-AADSAS (Dentistry Application) Opens /Submits
- Early to mid July-DAT (at the latest)
- Fall-Interview Time
- Dec. 15-1st Round
- Mid January-2nd Round
- Mid February-3rd Round
- Early March-Initial alternate invitations
“AADSAS, it opens up in June, you want to have submitted your stuff in June, period.”
“The biggest mistake that people make with AADSAS and the DAT is they think I’ll wait to submit the AADSAS once my DAT is done, don’t do that!”
Preparing for Admissions
Dr. Norton expressed that doing your homework is the best way to prepare for the admissions process! He provided 5 key areas to look at when choosing your dental school.
” Do your homework! It’s nothing worst when applicants comes in and done absolutely no homework.
“A person who’s done their homework, that makes you stand out!”
- Institution Website “Look at institutions website familiarize yourself with it”
- School Statistics “Know what their averages are, what is their average incoming GPA and incoming DAT, why? It will give you a good understanding of how competitive you’ll be.”
- Talk to alum (if possible)
- Beware of Forums “Forums are really not regulated and a lot of times, forums are the blind leading the blind.”
- Interview
- Be prepared to improvise
- Answer the question
- Do not ramble
- Ask thoughtful questions (not superficial questions)
- Send thank you notes
Aren’t all Dental Schools the Same?!
“No. Dental schools are very, very different!”
“The difference is going to be your clinical education, that is going to be the biggest difference of all.”
Dr. Norton explains that the difference in dental schools comes down to patients; the patient population and clinical training!
“What’s your patient population that comes in, do they have a good patient population?… Do I need to find my own patients or is there enough patients in your patient pool that comes to your dental school? If a school has a limited number of patients, that means your clinical experience is going to be limited.”
“Clinical training-You’ll get it in the general aspects but also in all the specialty areas but your key is how much are you going to get and that’s what you need to find out.”
“There are dental schools out there where they never pull a tooth…do you really want to go to a school where you never pulled a tooth? That’s going to significantly limit your clinical abilities…you want to find out what kind of training you’re going to do.”
Interesting Note about Creighton School of Dentistry!
“We had CARES ACT money, so one of the things we did was we actually built a couple of operatories designed for COVID patients so we can treat COVID patients. Part of the reason for that was, would if you do have COVID and you are in pain? Well do you have to suffer while you’re in pain as well as with COVID? You shouldn’t!”
If you are in need of pre-health advising and plan to be a University of Detroit Mercy student then schedule an appointment with Carmen Gamlin via https://calendly.com/prehealthadvisor